Clicky

  • Login
  • Register
  • Submit Your Content
  • Contact Us
Saturday, April 26, 2025
World Tribune
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
  • Business
  • Technology
  • Sports
  • Health
  • Food
Submit
  • Home
  • News
  • Business
  • Technology
  • Sports
  • Health
  • Food
No Result
View All Result
World Tribune
No Result
View All Result

I left Wall Street for failing snack company, sold it to Hershey

April 26, 2025
in News
Reading Time: 5 mins read
A A
I left Wall Street for failing snack company, sold it to Hershey
0
SHARES
ShareShareShareShareShare

READ ALSO

Elon Musk’s xAI Holdings in talks to raise $20 billion

Trump dinner for meme coin prompts senators to demand ethics probe

Charles Coristine used to revel in working at Morgan Stanley. He loved the pace, even waking up in the middle of the night to trade in the Tokyo and London stock markets.

In 2011, after nearly two decades on Wall Street, Coristine burned out. He tried multiple remedies: switching to a vegetarian diet, meditating, enrolling in an MBA program. None of them worked.

At a barbeque, Coristine met an owner of snack company LesserEvil, who talked about wanting to sell his “flatlining” business. Coristine had no food industry experience, but was intrigued by the idea of a fresh start — and he liked that the company’s name was “synchronistic” with a healthy, mindful lifestyle, he says.

In November 2011, Coristine bought LesserEvil for $250,000 from his savings, plus a future payment of $100,000, according to documents reviewed by CNBC Make It. The risk was impulsive and ill-researched, he says: LesserEvil, which aimed to offer consumers healthier popcorn and snack alternatives, was losing money and bringing in less than $1 million in annual revenue at the time, the company estimates.

“I didn’t know anyone in food … to ask whether I was crazy or not, but that’s probably good,” says Coristine, 52. “If I had done a lot of research and looked into it, I would have realized that the probability of success was pretty low.”

Yet the Danbury, Connecticut-based brand grew significantly under his watch: Its popcorns and air-popped Cheetos-like puffs and curls now appear in major retailers and corner stores across the U.S. LesserEvil grew to $103.3 million in annual gross sales by 2023, including $82.9 million in net sales and $14.4 million in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, or EBITDA.

On April 3, The Hershey Company announced a deal to acquire LesserEvil. The sale is worth a reported $750 million, plus more if LesserEvil hits some performance milestones, according to the Wall Street Journal. Coristine will remain its CEO, a LesserEvil spokesperson says.

Here’s how Coristine is making LesserEvil into a household name.

A ‘scrappy’ reinvention

When he bought LesserEvil, Coristine was working at TD Bank and pursuing an MBA at Cornell University Graduate School.

In 2012, he got his MBA degree and started his new full-time job as LesserEvil’s CEO. Among his first moves: hiring his graduate school friend Andrew Strife as COO and CFO, and his wakeboard instructor as head of marketing.

Along with the previous regime’s accountant, the small team worked from an office in Wilton, Connecticut, to update LesserEvil’s branding and create their own production line. The old-fashioned branding wasn’t attracting customers, and the company was paying about 20% of its revenue from each sale to co-packers who helped make and ship out the snacks, Coristine says.

Charles Coristine, CEO and president of LesserEvil

CNBC Make It

Coristine’s savings had largely run out, so the team raised an undisclosed amount of money from their friends and family, and secured more financing through a connection Coristine had at a bank, says Strife. They moved into a 5,000-square-foot factory in Danbury in 2012, and filled it with used equipment purchased at auctions.

The team made “friends with welders down the street,” who could weld wheels and popcorn shoots onto the machinery, Strife says. They painted factory’s exterior black and plastering a yellow “LesserEvil” logo to the side of the building themselves. As Coristine recalls, drivers started pulling off the road, entering the factory and asking, “Is this a strip club?”

“Everything was scrappy and needed to be reinvented as we went along,” says Strife.

New branding and an unconventional ingredient

In 2014, when a neighboring carpet factory moved out, LesserEvil knocked down the wall and added 2,000 square feet and a production line to its operations.

That year, Coristine’s personal nutritionist offered a health-focused suggestion: Use coconut oil to pop the popcorn. Coristine was skeptical that coconut oil would stay fresh in a snack bag, so he literally shelf-tested it, he says: “We put it on the top of a fridge, which gets really hot [and left it for] for three months.”

The oil stayed fresh, and Coristine liked the surprisingly buttery taste, so LesserEvil launched the reformulated product with a new laughing Buddha logo in 2014 — calling it the Buddha Bowl. It brought in roughly $2 million that year, accounting for a third of LesserEvil’s annual revenue, the company says.

Coristine met LesserEvil’s CFO and COO Andrew Strife in an MBA program

CNBC Make It

Kroger, the first major retailer to sell LesserEvil, started stocking its products in 2015. That partnership helped fund another move for LesserEvil in 2017 — this time, to a 20,000-square-foot factory, says Strife.

A year later, the company got its first outside funding — about $3 million, the company says — from sustainable food and agriculture investment firm InvestEco. Coristine and his team used the funds to add production lines to the new factory and update LesserEvil’s packaging again: Each product now features its own “guru,” from the ancient Greek poet Homer to Henry David Thoreau.

The rebrand, and added products, helped push the brand into profitability. Coristine started paying himself a salary from LesserEvil that year, the company says.

‘It doesn’t feel like work’

LesserEvil’s goal has always been to differentiate itself from competitors with non-standard ingredients like extra-virgin coconut oil and avocado oil, says Coristine.

Sometimes, using atypical ingredients can have consequences: A Consumer Reports investigation from June found “concerning amounts of lead” in two of LesserEvil’s cassava-based Lil’ Puffs snacks for kids. The company issued an apology, and has since relaunched the puffs with sorghum flour instead of cassava flour.

The company still brought in $62 million in net sales during the first half of 2024. It used another round of funding — $19 million, in a round led by investment firm Aria Growth Partners, LesserEvil says — to buy out prior investors and open a new factory in New Milford, roughly 15 miles from its Danbury facility.

Between two factories, LesserEvil now pops 5,000 pounds of popcorn per hour, according to the company

CNBC Make It

Today, the company has 350 employees. Before the acquisition by Hershey, which also owns popcorn brand SkinnyPop, Coristine’s short-term goals involved growing LesserEvil further and launching new products. Longer-term, he simply wants the company to “be a brand that could be around for along time,” he says.

LesserEvil has already succeeded in helping Coristine solve a more personal problem, he adds — he works less, from about 7:45 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., and feels happier since leaving Wall Street.

“It feels joyous, so it doesn’t feel like work,” says Coristine.

Want to master your money this fall? Sign up for CNBC’s new online course. We’ll teach you practical strategies to hack your budget, reduce your debt, and grow your wealth. Start today to feel more confident and successful. Use code EARLYBIRD for an introductory discount of 30% off, now extended through September 30, 2024, for the back-to-school season.

Plus, sign up for CNBC Make It’s newsletter to get tips and tricks for success at work, with money and in life.

I left Wall Street for failing snack company, sold it to Hershey

Credit: Source link

ShareTweetSendSharePin
Previous Post

Lightning vs. Panthers Game 3 odds, prediction

Next Post

New poll shows half of Republicans don’t believe Trump has his priorities straight

Related Posts

Elon Musk’s xAI Holdings in talks to raise  billion
News

Elon Musk’s xAI Holdings in talks to raise $20 billion

April 26, 2025
Trump dinner for meme coin prompts senators to demand ethics probe
News

Trump dinner for meme coin prompts senators to demand ethics probe

April 26, 2025
Amazon sellers hike prices of goods after Trump’s China tariffs
News

Amazon sellers hike prices of goods after Trump’s China tariffs

April 25, 2025
ECB members say inflation job nearly done but tariff risks loom
News

ECB members say inflation job nearly done but tariff risks loom

April 25, 2025
Russia tests U.S. patience, Trump rushes to clinch Ukraine peace deal
News

Russia tests U.S. patience, Trump rushes to clinch Ukraine peace deal

April 25, 2025
China pledges to ramp up targeted support for businesses as U.S. trade war hits
News

China pledges to ramp up targeted support for businesses as U.S. trade war hits

April 25, 2025
Next Post
New poll shows half of Republicans don’t believe Trump has his priorities straight

New poll shows half of Republicans don’t believe Trump has his priorities straight

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

What's New Here!

Tariffs spell trouble for VCs amid Klarna, StubHub IPO delays

Tariffs spell trouble for VCs amid Klarna, StubHub IPO delays

April 11, 2025
Rocket makes  billion bid to dominate the homebuying process

Rocket makes $11 billion bid to dominate the homebuying process

April 1, 2025
Panasonic S1R II review: An excellent hybrid camera that’s cheaper than rivals

Panasonic S1R II review: An excellent hybrid camera that’s cheaper than rivals

April 16, 2025
The EU is putting repairability rating labels on phones and tablets in June

The EU is putting repairability rating labels on phones and tablets in June

April 24, 2025
Rafael Devers continues brutal start as strikeouts reach historic mark

Rafael Devers continues brutal start as strikeouts reach historic mark

April 1, 2025
Stocks in Asia and Europe Fall Sharply as Trump Doubles Down on Global Tariffs: Live Updates

Stocks in Asia and Europe Fall Sharply as Trump Doubles Down on Global Tariffs: Live Updates

April 7, 2025
“It feels alive”: The Legend of Ochi director on the power of puppets

“It feels alive”: The Legend of Ochi director on the power of puppets

April 25, 2025

About

World Tribune is an online news portal that shares the latest news on world, business, health, tech, sports, and related topics.

Follow us

Recent Posts

  • New poll shows half of Republicans don’t believe Trump has his priorities straight
  • I left Wall Street for failing snack company, sold it to Hershey
  • Lightning vs. Panthers Game 3 odds, prediction
  • Yankees’ Paul Goldschmidt hitting like DJ LeMahieu did in his prime

Newslatter

Loading
  • Submit Your Content
  • Contact Us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Use
  • DMCA

© 2024 World Tribune - All Rights Reserved!

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
  • Business
  • Technology
  • Sports
  • Health
  • Food

© 2024 World Tribune - All Rights Reserved!

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password? Sign Up

Create New Account!

Fill the forms below to register

All fields are required. Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In